TopBox has sent me some Burt's Bees products to review, and I'm about to spill the tea on their makeup. I wanted to love the products that TopBox sent me because it's Burt we're talking about here. The brand is super popular and mostly known for their lip balms. They also don't test on animals, and their products are formulated without parabens, phthalates, SLS, petrolatum, talc, or synthetic fragrances. But the products didn't wow me, and one particular product was so awful that I'm debating tossing the bottle in the trash. And I hate wasting products.

Burt's Bees Goodness Glows Liquid Foundation - $20.99

Burt's Bees 100% Natural All Aglow Lip & Cheek Stick - $20.99

I had a slightly better experience with their 100% Natural All Aglow Lip & Cheek Sticks. I received the shades Suez Sands and Dahlia Dew. Their lip & cheek sticks retail at $20.99. I've never tried a cream blush or a stick blush, let alone one that doubles as a lip tint. This product tries to be versatile, but that makes application dirty and germy. If you're using this product on your face then your mouth, you're going to have to wipe it off between uses otherwise you're applying a cesspool of germs onto your lips. I wouldn't recommend using the stick directly on your face (which is literally its sole purpose as a stick product) because it will move your foundation around relentlessly. I found that the best way to apply it to my face to swipe a clean makeup brush against the stick, then to dab it onto my cheeks. You can also use your fingers to transfer the product from the stick to your skin, but the lighter you dab (which is easier with a brush), the less likely you'll be disturbing your foundation. Paired with the Goodness Glows foundation, blending the two were difficult, and if not done correctly, will make your foundation patchy all over. As a lip tint, the product applies well and will last an hour or so. And I'll admit, as a lip tint it does feel nourishing. Colour-wise, Suez Sands is a dusty rose colour and applied very lightly, which looked natural on my cheeks but not opaque enough to be noticeable on my lips. Dahlia Dew is very red and I found it to be too dark to look natural on my cheeks, but added a nice darker tint to my lips.

Burt's Bees 100% Natural Highlighter/Bronzer Stick - $20.99

The Burt's Bees 100% Natural All Aglow Highlighter Stick and 100% Natural All Aglow Bronzer Stick retail for $20.99. You will need to apply it the same way as you would the cheek/lip sticks: with a brush or your fingers. If you use the sticks directly on your face (more specifically, with the Goodness Glows foundation), you will smear all your foundation underneath. They have one highlighter shade called Opal Mist, which is a soft and opal/cream colour and applies lightly and gives a more natural and subtle looking glow. Their bronzer sticks have two shades, Golden Shimmer and Bronze Splash, which can be described as gold and darker gold. I received darker gold, and it applied like a gold highlighter. I wouldn't use this as a bronzer because it's too shimmery, but I'd definitely use it as a highlighter, especially for warm summer days.

Burt's Bees 100% Natural Nourishing Mascara - $14.99

Lastly, I also received their 100% Natural Nourishing Mascara, which retails for $14.99 and comes in the colours black brown and classic black. It's made with jojoba oil and glycerin to nourish lashes, and is supposed to be delicate for your eye area. I've seen many reviews saying that they thought it was clumpy and flaky. Personally, I didn't see any flakiness whatsoever. As for clumping, maybe a teensy bit, but that can always be rectified by twirling the mascara wand as you apply the product. This is a trick that I use with all my mascaras to create a flawless, clump-free finish. It also didn't hold up very well with water, so if you happen to shed a tear while wearing this mascara be prepared to have it run down your face. This product wasn't the best mascara that I've ever used, but it wasn't the worst. It didn't make my lashes look lengthened or anything, but is good for a more natural lift for my lashes. It was meh, but it's budget friendly for anyone looking for natural makeup products.

I wanted to love these products by Burt's Bees. I wanted to love how they were made from natural ingredients. But I feel like these products missed the mark for me. I can learn to use all the stick products so that I can apply them more expertly. The mascara I can work with. But these products were all meh. Not incredible, but not horrible either. And for meh products, I don't know if I could justify the price points. If you want to make better consumer choices by purchasing natural products, then maybe this is the product line for you. However, the foundation was absolutely horrid and I would never recommend it. Maybe it works better on people with different skin types than me, but this product is definitely not meant for anyone with oily skin unless they want to look oilier than they already are.

P.S. This is the look that I created using all the products (minus Bronze Splash). If you can't tell from the picture below, I suck at selfies! I'm not even smiling. My house has poor lighting, so you can't really tell, but my skin looks super oily/shiny because of the foundation. Opal Mist didn't give much of a highlight, the mascara looks average, Suez Sands didn't make my cheeks look very rosy because it was too sheer, and Dahlia Dew did an okay job adding some tint to my lips, but it didn't last much longer than an hour or so. Overall, the look is very natural. So with the exception of the foundation, I may keep some of these products in my arsenal of makeup for days that I want to look more natural (ie. when I do a no-makeup makeup look).

This week I received a box of goodies to test and review from Covergirl and Influenster! I couldn't be more excited, as I've always loved Covergirl's mascaras (minus the Plumpify one, but that's another story!). I also wasn't even expecting to get this VoxBox, as it showed up in my mailbox a few days before I got VoxBox confirmation email. The VoxBox contained Covergirl's Total Tease mascara, and Katy Kat Eye eye liner. 

The mascara, like most of their brushes lately, seems gimicky with a different-than-the-norm brush that promises length and defined lashes. The brush is different from other mascaras because the brush has two sides. One side has short bristles which are very similar to the Covergirl Super Sizer Mascara's bristles. These allow the wearer to get close to the eyelash roots to create volume and defined lashes. The other end has a smaller addition, with two rows of slightly longer bristles. This smaller end is to help tease out the length of your lashes. I found the best method to tease them out while still getting definition is to use to larger end, smaller end, then larger end again. However, I don't think that the teasing portion of the brush makes a very noticeable difference. Instead, I found that it works best to define my lower lash line, especially near the corners of my eye. I don't think the teasing end is something necessary or very handy, as I find that the normal brush does a very satisfactory job at giving my lashes volume and definition on its own. In my opinion, the mascara was fun to try and a rather decent one at that, but The Super Sizer mascara is essentially the same brush, sans teasing end.

I was excited to try the Katy Kat Eye eye liner because I knew that I needed to replace my current pencil liner soon. The colour that I received was Kitty Kadabra, which is a grey-black liner with some shimmer in it. I have to say that the liner was unfortunately not very pigmented, but it looks very nice for a neutral look because it's not very bold. However, I was hoping for a bit more of a pigmented colour from this liner.

The liner also has a smudge stick on the other end to help soften the lines that you create. But because the eyeliner isn't very pigmented to begin with it may unlikely that you would ever have a need for it. Overall, I can't say that I was "wowed" by this eyeliner, and it's definitely not something that I would go out of my way to buy. The only wow factor I found with this eyeliner was how I broke down crying when I got a new job, and it was the only part of my makeup that didn't budge. The mascara didn't fare as well. It didn't run down down my face, but it all came off as soon as I had to blot my face with some tissue. 

The products were nice to try, but I unfortunately didn't think they were very special or unique enough for me to repurchase. 



A special thank you to @InfluensterCA and @Covergirl for sending me these products free to test and review (#TotalTeaseMascara #contest).

*I received these products free to test and review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are solely my own.

Covergirl's Plumpify BlashPro Mascara, retail $9.97CAD Walmart

I recently received Covergirl's Plumpify BlashPro Mascara in Black from BzzAgent to test and review for free. I was super excited to try this product, as last year I tried Covergirl's Super Sizer mascara through them and fell in love with it. Since then, this mascara has been my favourite drugstore mascara and my every day go-to. I loved Super Sizer so much, that I got my hopes up and couldn't wait to try another one of Covergirl's "amazing" mascaras.

Covergirl wasn't lying when they said that the Plumpify mascara had their biggest brush ever. The double-action brush is supposed to create voluminous lashes from the base, but it's difficult for the brush to reach the base of your lashes without the bristles pricking at your lash line. The brush is created of a hard plastic with long bristles twisting around it. But the brush is created in such a way that the mascara's formula can't even cover all of the bristles – you can still see the original red colour of the brush that is present before you dip your brush in the formula. The brush is also so large that it has difficulty going in and out of the tube. While applying the mascara, the large applicator makes it uncomfortable to apply the mascara. One has to be careful not to prick their lash line with the hard bristles, and careful not to touch their eyelid or brow area while coating the tips of the lashes.

The formula itself though is good, which makes the brush the disappointing feature. The formula is smudge-resistant, opthalmologically tested, hypoallergenic, and washes off with soap and water. Removing the mascara at the end of the day is easy, which was a refreshing change as I usually use a waterproof formula that is difficult to remove. The formula does give a nice curl to my lashes, my lashes are defined, the formula doesn't clump, or flake throughout the day. The mascara gives a more natural curl and lift to my lashes, which is nice if I want a makeup-free makeup look, but I like having volume, thickness and oomph in my lashes. Because I liked the formula and not the brush, I thought I would be clever and screw on the applicator of my Super Sizer mascara onto the neck of this bottle. However, it didn't work. I spoke with another BzzAgent about the brush and she said that she MacGyver'd herself a new brush by using a disposable brush, some wire, and the lid that comes with the Plumpify mascara that you take off before putting the brush in. It was very clever, but I already threw out my lid and don't have any disposable mascara brushes at my disposal.

All in all, I loved the formula of this mascara, but the brush was too large and gimicky for me to enjoy. If the product had a different brush, I probably would have liked it more. For now, I can use one coat of this mascara to use the formula, and use my old Super Sizer brush to get the volume that I crave for my lashes.

*UPDATE*

So after over two weeks of using this mascara, here are my thoughts:

My thoughts on the brush hasn't changed. The brush is still large, too bulky to fit back into the bottle with ease, and the bristles are still hard and prickly when I try to apply the mascara. If you look at the picture above, there' a lot of mascara build up on the tip of the brush when you take it out of the bottle. This hasn't changed. I'm constantly wiping the tip of the brush off before applying the product. However, you can take advantage of this issue by using the stamping method to coat the roots of your lashes. Basically, take the tip of the brush (after wiping off some of the excess product of course) and just stamp the bottom of your upper lash line. It's the best way to get coverage of your roots without feeling the prickly bristles, and can give a more seamless finish between your lashes and liner.

The formula is still great and gives pretty decent coverage and wear throughout the day. It doesn't flake or get sticky, and my lashes are defined. However, there is not as much curl and length as I wanted from the product. I've never had a need to use an eyelash curler before, but if you apply one coat of mascara, use a curler, then apply again, you can gain a more optimal curl.

Anyways, I hope that you found this useful. Even though I wasn't much of a fan of the Plumpify mascara, I kept using the product to try and find some more pros than the cons I had already listed. After giving the mascara a second chance, these were the methods that I found that helped me to combat some of these issues.

Last month, I received COVERGIRL's new Super Sizer Mascara to test and review for free (#GotItFree). I've been using it for the past 15 days now, and my thoughts have not changed much since my first review. Perhaps it would be best to say what I have to say in point form:


- The brush has short bristles, which is something I'm not used to. However, the length allows for close access to the roots of your lashes, which is where you begin to get all that great volume from.

- Because the bristles are shorter than long-bristled mascara wands, they do not scratch at your eyelids. Ugh, how do I explain that in a nicer way? Basically with my old mascara, I would apply my eyeliner, then mascara, then have to reapply my eyeliner because the mascara brush scratched away at the liner. Does that make sense? With this mascara, I haven't had that problem at all!

- This mascara also comes in a waterproof formula! As a prone crybaby, this is a score for me!

- This mascara is inexpensive! It averages $6-8 depending on where you buy it from. And this week, I got it on sale at Shoppers Drug Mart for $6, plus I used one of the $2 coupons that I received from BzzAgent, as well as $1 cash back on CheckOut 51... Making it only $3! Talk about a steal!

- The product boasts 400% more corner-to-corner volume. And holy geez, it gives my lashes crazy volume! My barely-there blonde lashes have been hard for me to define with past mascaras. With The Super Sizer Mascara, I can easily give my lashes insane volume and gorgeous definition.

- The method for applying this mascara is super simple: load the wand, start applying from the root of your lashes to the tips, and twirl or rotate the wand as you apply. That's it, and it's so darn easy.

- I can usually achieve the desired amount of volume that I want in one application, saving me some time in my morning makeup routine as compared to my old 2-3 application mascara.

In summary, this mascara is worth your time to keep an eye on (ahahaha... eyes. Cause it's mascara?? Okay, I'll stop. That was a bad joke). But seriously, I've decided that this product is my new go-to mascara. And that's not me giving a shoutout because I got it for free. I'm actually super impressed with this mascara and if you don't believe me, just take a look at my before and after shots below!

I received COVERGIRL's new Super Sizer Mascara to test and review for free this week. And let me tell you, I'm quite impressed by this product.

I usually like thicker wands, and Rimmel Scandal Eyes Retro Glam is/was my ultimate go-to mascara for volume and definition. However, Covergirl's product is worthy opponent as far as volume goes. Applying this product is simple: you load the base, twirl the wand upward, and receive intense volume. The product boasts 400% more corner-to-corner volume, and my lashes currently look so intense that it looks as if I am wearing false lashes. It could maybe use a wee bit more individual lash definition, but this product is pretty fabulous. This mascara also comes in a waterproof formula! As a prone crybaby, waterproof mascaras are very important to me. I'm 100% sold on this product.